Holly Black’s modern faerie trilogy ends perfectly. I loved this book. I loved this series.

Ironside takes us back to the original gang - Kaye, the brash pixie raised as a human girl, Roiben the silver-haired faerie knight (now king of the Unseelie Court) and Corny, a miserable young man, not comfortable in his own skin. It also throws in characters from Valiant - most notably Luis, who comes back in a big way.

In this novel the tensions between Roiben and his once-mistress, Silarial, queen of the Bright Court, rise to a peak with war brewing between the faerie realms, our friends caught in the middle. Everything is dangerous and unsteady. Corny is still wounded by the death of his sister and the way he was treated by the faerie knight Nephamael. Roiben still hates himself and what he has become, and can’t hardly see a way out beyond dying and maybe taking Silarial with him. Meanwhile his sister, Ethine, doesn’t understand why he won’t just come home to the Bright Court and let everything be as it was. Kaye declares her love for Roiben, only to have him send her on an impossible task - knowing that she can’t see him again until she completes it. Everyone is hurting for so many reasons and the danger just keeps compounding against them.

Black’s writing is smooth and beautiful. The villains are vindictive, petty and shrewd, the heroes are brash and tough and reckless, but have such very genuine emotion. The imagery of faerie is beautifully done and the way Block weaves in folklore and myth makes my heart happy.

I am going to hunt out her other series after reading these. I think I have found a new favourite young adult author! ( )

I like the way she ended Kaye and Roiben's stories. I wish she would have finished up, or tied in Val's story. I felt like she kinda left us hanging, and it made Valiant not make sense in the series. ( )

Wikipedia in English (1)

In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben's coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing -- her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can't see or speak to Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn't exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.

Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth -- that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother's shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben's throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?

Holly Black spins a seductive tale at once achingly real and chillingly enchanted, set in a dangerous world where pleasure mingles with pain and nothing is exactly as it appears.

As the possessor of Roibin's true name, sixteen-year-old Kaye returns to Faeryland to try and complete a nearly-impossible quest that will release him from the spell of the faery queen who holds him in thrall.